The marketing world never sleeps, which means there are bound to be things that fly in under your radar. To make sure you’re up to speed, here’s some news you might have missed over the last two weeks:

Moves, hires and agency changes

• Lothar Boensch (pictured right) has been named managing partner for Blast Radius‘ Vancouver headquarters. Boensch first joined the digital agency in 2000, helping to establish and run new offices in Europe, before being named senior director of business development in 2006. Since leaving Blast Radius in 2011, he has held various roles at software development companies FCV, Monexa and Aequillibrium. The agency has offices in 12 other cities globally, including Toronto, and has worked with Converse, Nike and Bacardi.
• Alexandre Dumas, former director of public and corporate affairs at PR agency Cohn & Wolfe Montreal, has been promoted to VP.
• Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Mansfield Communications has rebranded as Mansfield Inc. In a blog post on the firm’s new website, CEO Hugh Mansfield said the change was made to reflect the work being done by its data analytics and creative teams, in addition to traditional public relations.
• BIMM has launched Backpack Analytics, a marketing analytics firm focused on working with education clients. Greg Worsnop will lead Backpack as VP, managing director in addition to his VP, CRM strategy and planning role at BIMM for the time being. Worsnop tells strategy working with academic clients at BIMM showed the agency there was a need for better use of data in that space, and its growing analytic and planning capabilities allowed it to take advantage. Currently drawing team members from BIMM’s staff with future growth dependent on its success, Backpack will combine traditional marketing metrics with academic data like dropout prevention, alumni engagement and course enrollment to direct campaigns for Canadian colleges and universities, clients that will be separate from BIMM’s roster.
• Toronto-based public relations firm Media Profile (pictured right) has hired two new staff and promoted seven more. Caitie Wallman has joined as a senior consultant after three and a half years at Paradigm, working on the accounts for Cancer Care Ontario and Starbucks, the latter of which named the firm PR AOR last month. Katherine Sheppard has been hired as an account coordinator to work on Abbvie, CIBC Team Next and AutoTrader. Long-time employees Jeri Brown, Scott Taber and Sherline Joe have been promoted to account directors. Stephanie Mustachi and Ginger Shewell have been promoted to senior consultants, and Sarah Fournier and Wendy Manton are now consultants.
• Quebec agency Prospek has named Emmanuelle Giasson VP of business development. Giasson joins the agency after more than 10 years at Bell and Astral Media, and has previously worked at Newad and Cossette. Prospek works mostly with local clients, which have included Taxi Diamond and Agence métropolitaine de transport.

New assignments

• Cundari will lead a social media campaign for The National Gallery of Canada‘s annual “So you want to be an artist?” contest.
• MacIntyre Communications has been named the PR agency of record for L’Oreal Canada‘s Kérastase Paris and Shu Uemura haircare brands. L’Oreal also selected Hill + Knowlton Strategies to run public relations for L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science, a program that supports women in STEM fields.
• Narrative PR has been named PR agency of record for Canadian luggage brand Bentley. Narrative will run an annual PR program from Bentley as well as manage the launch of premium banner Blackbook Travel Co. this coming spring.

Media

• General Mills has named Cossette its media agency of record, effective June 1. The move consolidates the General Mills’ business at the agency, which also handles the CPG company’s creative. General Mills previously split media buying between Cossette and ZenithOptimedia.
• Scotiabank and Cineplex’s Scene loyalty program has partnered with Cara Operations, the owner of restaurant chains Swiss Chalet, Harvey’s and Milestones, to be the program’s exclusive restaurant partner. The partnership will be promoted with a campaign this summer that will have a presence both in-restaurant and in-theatre.
• Postmedia, Yellow Pages, DHX Television and Halifax’s Chronicle Herald newspaper have become members of Canada’s Premium Audience Exchange (CPAX). This addition brings the total amount of companies with inventory on the exchange over 100, and includes La Presse, CBC/Radio-Canada, Rogers Media and Shaw Media.

Campaigns

• P&G Canada and Cossette have launched a new online masterbrand campaign called “The Indoorsmen.” The series of videos spotlight Tide, Febreeze and Swiffer and show how the products help today’s more indoorsy types can keep their homes hospitable.
• BMW has partnered with Globe and Mail on a new branded content campaign called Life˟. Working with Cundari on creative and Media Experts on buying, the series promotes the X series of vehicles by showing the impact the cars have on drivers’ lifestyles.

Featured image courtesy Shutterstock